She's done it again. It is no secret to readers of this blog that I love the fiction work of author Mary DeMuth. I've recently read The Muir House, her latest fiction novel and I recommend it for your summer reading list. Seriously.

The notion of looking in your rearview to help chart your future, is a little not-like-me. Thus, at first, I really had a bit of a challenge identifying with the main character, Willa. But as I looked beyond my own thoughts and tried to synchronize with where Willa was in her path to discovery, I was ensnared in the story. Sometimes I rooted for Willa and other times, I verbally asked her what she was thinking. My dog can attest. Talking to a book. Yep. That was me.

But that's the wonderful thing about how DeMuth crafts a story. Once you're in, you're in. And you want to see everything work out for the character. I was hanging on until the end to see if everything worked out the way that I thought it should. Of course, I'm not going to give any indication of that now. You'll just have to read the book. I also noticed some parallels from the little that I know of Mary DeMuth through reading Thin Places. Willa has, at some level, some similar issues that Mary uncovers in her memoir. Maybe this latest novel is our seeing how free DeMuth, the author has become. At least in my little ole opinion.

I think this would be a good book to read with a group, really taking advantage of the discussion questions in the back of the novel. So, if you've got a bookclub, recommend it, or even if you read it alone, that's good too. Just read it.

Mary, job well done!